I am a very big dog lover, I have owned several dogs, but I have a lab and golden retriever now, At night the labs eyes glow bright blue, like flashlights, and the golden’s glow orange, which really amazes me because the dogs I have owned in the past either glowed green or red. I was wondering if anyone could tell me why that is.

Hi Linda, that’s an interesting question.
I think it is to do with the eye tissue that forms the tapetum lucidem and the shape of your dog’s eye lens – light travels through these at different speeds depending on their density and shape respectively. As a result we see the light as a different colour depending on the speed its travelling at.

I searched to find this subject because I have been around hundreds of dogs throughout my life and I have never seen their eyes glow anything other than green or red. I have just recently adopted a pure white pitbull and her eyes glow the most beautiful bright blue. I was wondering how common it really is. I guess not very. Thanks for your information everyone.

I have a pitbull, and when she was about a year old her eye’s would glow almost purple. Now that she’s 6 years of age her eyes glow a greenish white. so i think that age must play some role as well? A close friend had a pit bull whos eyes each glowed a different color, one red and one blue, yet in the daylight her eyes seemed identical. very interesting…